The Cast:
Alex (that's me): Male, 29, the compulsive planner in the family. First Disney trip since 1987!
Crystal (DW): Female, 30, deprived of her childhood dreams, making her first visit ever.
Monday, October 1: AK, TL, and Epcot!
Weather: Chilly morning, warm and sunny afternoon, 80 degrees
We woke up at 6am for Animal Kingdom. There was definitely a chill in the air with a record low temperature of 59 degrees. We arrived at AK early enough to catch the pre-opening entertainment from "Wes Palm", the talking tree. Very funny stuff. We hit Kilamanjaro Safaris first. The animals were up and moving, but I was seated on the right side of the vehicle while most of the "major" animals were on the left side
I found It's Tough To Be a Bug to be much less scary than I anticipated. This is coming from a man who screams at the sight of a housefly! It was mostly a cute and funny kind of scary. By the time Asia opened and we could ride Kali River Rapids, the sun was beating down hard and there was no sign of the chill that we experienced at dawn. There was no waiting and we were allowed to ride twice in a row without leaving the raft. BIG MISTAKE! 
We were barely dripped on the first time through, but our luck ran out and we got soaked the second time around. I swear the CM's cranked the water level up between rides just to mess with our heads! The sun dried us out in no time and we started hitting the stage shows. I enjoyed Festival of the Lion King, but all the bright colors and jumping around made DW a bit dizzy. Tarzan Rocks was a decent production, but DW complained that there was too much singing and not enough Tarzan. Flights of Wonder was interesting, and we both found Pocahontas to be a total bore.
We would have liked to spend some more time walking the paths and seeing Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade, but we wanted to get to Typhoon Lagoon in time to get a few hours of water park in. We had heard conflicting reports as to whether TL would be open or not, but it was up and running when we got there. Personally I'm not into water parks, but DW loves the slides. Our plan was for me to set up shop under a tree while she spent the afternoon hitting the slides. As it turns out, I had a great time in the wave pool and even worked up the courage to do a couple of the raft rides. Lines were minimal, so in the course of only 3 hours DW was able to experience every slide in the park at least twice with plenty of time to spare for the surf pool. TL turned out to be DW's favorite park, so I'm really glad we ducked out of AK early to go there.
After TL closed at 5, we went back to Epcot to finish off World Showcase and check out Tapestry of Dreams, which was an odd parade to say the least, but very nicely done. After a 6am wake-up and three parks, we went back to the hotel and had our first disappointing meal of the week, hotel room service.
A word on AK: We could have easily spent the rest of the afternoon there just enjoying the nature trails. Some people had told me that we would be finished with AK by noon, but these were obviously people who are only interested in the safari and the raft ride with no interest in the exhibits. We thought AK was easily the prettiest of the Disney theme parks.
Tomorrow, more record low temps and Universal Studios!
Alex (that's me): Male, 29, the compulsive planner in the family. First Disney trip since 1987!
Crystal (DW): Female, 30, deprived of her childhood dreams, making her first visit ever.
Monday, October 1: AK, TL, and Epcot!
Weather: Chilly morning, warm and sunny afternoon, 80 degrees
We woke up at 6am for Animal Kingdom. There was definitely a chill in the air with a record low temperature of 59 degrees. We arrived at AK early enough to catch the pre-opening entertainment from "Wes Palm", the talking tree. Very funny stuff. We hit Kilamanjaro Safaris first. The animals were up and moving, but I was seated on the right side of the vehicle while most of the "major" animals were on the left side
I found It's Tough To Be a Bug to be much less scary than I anticipated. This is coming from a man who screams at the sight of a housefly! It was mostly a cute and funny kind of scary. By the time Asia opened and we could ride Kali River Rapids, the sun was beating down hard and there was no sign of the chill that we experienced at dawn. There was no waiting and we were allowed to ride twice in a row without leaving the raft. BIG MISTAKE! We were barely dripped on the first time through, but our luck ran out and we got soaked the second time around. I swear the CM's cranked the water level up between rides just to mess with our heads! The sun dried us out in no time and we started hitting the stage shows. I enjoyed Festival of the Lion King, but all the bright colors and jumping around made DW a bit dizzy. Tarzan Rocks was a decent production, but DW complained that there was too much singing and not enough Tarzan. Flights of Wonder was interesting, and we both found Pocahontas to be a total bore.We would have liked to spend some more time walking the paths and seeing Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade, but we wanted to get to Typhoon Lagoon in time to get a few hours of water park in. We had heard conflicting reports as to whether TL would be open or not, but it was up and running when we got there. Personally I'm not into water parks, but DW loves the slides. Our plan was for me to set up shop under a tree while she spent the afternoon hitting the slides. As it turns out, I had a great time in the wave pool and even worked up the courage to do a couple of the raft rides. Lines were minimal, so in the course of only 3 hours DW was able to experience every slide in the park at least twice with plenty of time to spare for the surf pool. TL turned out to be DW's favorite park, so I'm really glad we ducked out of AK early to go there.
After TL closed at 5, we went back to Epcot to finish off World Showcase and check out Tapestry of Dreams, which was an odd parade to say the least, but very nicely done. After a 6am wake-up and three parks, we went back to the hotel and had our first disappointing meal of the week, hotel room service.
A word on AK: We could have easily spent the rest of the afternoon there just enjoying the nature trails. Some people had told me that we would be finished with AK by noon, but these were obviously people who are only interested in the safari and the raft ride with no interest in the exhibits. We thought AK was easily the prettiest of the Disney theme parks.
Tomorrow, more record low temps and Universal Studios!
